the collection of reservoirs i watch last year
was around 6-7 million acre feet of water about this
time. this year it is close to 12maf. the reservoirs
that were close to sucking air that were real concerns
were Folsom and McClure, both are doing ok this year.

i hope they get plenty of snow this winter on the
mountains.


songbird

On 10/20/2016 07:13 AM, songbird wrote:
the collection of reservoirs i watch last year
was around 6-7 million acre feet of water about this
time. this year it is close to 12maf. the reservoirs
that were close to sucking air that were real concerns
were Folsom and McClure, both are doing ok this year.

i hope they get plenty of snow this winter on the
mountains.


songbird


It rained for three days last week here in
Northern Nevada, so CA should have got
a bunch. The mountains (Sierras) now have
snow on them. And it is 75F outside today.

On 10/21/2016 2:06 PM, T wrote:
On 10/20/2016 07:13 AM, songbird wrote:
the collection of reservoirs i watch last year
was around 6-7 million acre feet of water about this
time. this year it is close to 12maf. the reservoirs
that were close to sucking air that were real concerns
were Folsom and McClure, both are doing ok this year.

i hope they get plenty of snow this winter on the
mountains.


songbird


It rained for three days last week here in
Northern Nevada, so CA should have got
a bunch. The mountains (Sierras) now have
snow on them. And it is 75F outside today.

Most of our nearby reservoirs, three, are all full, it rained upstream
several times recently. Unfortunately we are only getting sprinkles
occasionally so we have to water the vegetable gardens and the fruit
trees with a hose frequently.

The Houston, TX area is nearly always getting regular rain, this year
has been an anomaly. Two previous years we got at least two or three
eighteen inch rains and several folks dumb enough to drive off into an
underpass died.

On 10/21/2016 01:04 PM, George Shirley wrote:
On 10/21/2016 2:06 PM, T wrote:
On 10/20/2016 07:13 AM, songbird wrote:
the collection of reservoirs i watch last year
was around 6-7 million acre feet of water about this
time. this year it is close to 12maf. the reservoirs
that were close to sucking air that were real concerns
were Folsom and McClure, both are doing ok this year.

i hope they get plenty of snow this winter on the
mountains.


songbird


It rained for three days last week here in
Northern Nevada, so CA should have got
a bunch. The mountains (Sierras) now have
snow on them. And it is 75F outside today.

Most of our nearby reservoirs, three, are all full, it rained upstream
several times recently. Unfortunately we are only getting sprinkles
occasionally so we have to water the vegetable gardens and the fruit
trees with a hose frequently.

The Houston, TX area is nearly always getting regular rain, this year
has been an anomaly. Two previous years we got at least two or three
eighteen inch rains and several folks dumb enough to drive off into an
underpass died.

We get three whole inches a year. A 1/2 inch of rain causes
street flooding and flash floods. Go figure

On 10/21/2016 3:24 PM, T wrote:
On 10/21/2016 01:04 PM, George Shirley wrote:
On 10/21/2016 2:06 PM, T wrote:
On 10/20/2016 07:13 AM, songbird wrote:
the collection of reservoirs i watch last year
was around 6-7 million acre feet of water about this
time. this year it is close to 12maf. the reservoirs
that were close to sucking air that were real concerns
were Folsom and McClure, both are doing ok this year.

i hope they get plenty of snow this winter on the
mountains.


songbird


It rained for three days last week here in
Northern Nevada, so CA should have got
a bunch. The mountains (Sierras) now have
snow on them. And it is 75F outside today.

Most of our nearby reservoirs, three, are all full, it rained upstream
several times recently. Unfortunately we are only getting sprinkles
occasionally so we have to water the vegetable gardens and the fruit
trees with a hose frequently.

The Houston, TX area is nearly always getting regular rain, this year
has been an anomaly. Two previous years we got at least two or three
eighteen inch rains and several folks dumb enough to drive off into an
underpass died.

We get three whole inches a year. A 1/2 inch of rain causes
street flooding and flash floods. Go figure
You either live in a cement city or someplace with lots of rocks. We sit
on several hundred feet of ancient sea bed topped with many centuries of
composted plants. Then we buy a house that the builder put five feet of
Houston gumbo clay on top of that fine soil and topped the clay with two
inches of sand. Just so the homeowner's don't have to buy gubmint
insurance for flooding.

In Louisiana we lived on top of a forty foot ancient sand dune with eons
of humus from dying plants and didn't have to buy the gubmint insurance.
Should have stayed there, but our kids, grands, and great grands all
live within less than an hour from us now.

Most people don't even think about what their property sits on top of
then they wonder one of two things, #1-how did I get all this wonderful
soil? #2-what the heck is this stuff under our feet? Then there's people
who live in tall buildings in big cities and think a window box is
wonderful. VBSEG

On 10/21/2016 02:38 PM, George Shirley wrote:
On 10/21/2016 3:24 PM, T wrote:
On 10/21/2016 01:04 PM, George Shirley wrote:
On 10/21/2016 2:06 PM, T wrote:
On 10/20/2016 07:13 AM, songbird wrote:
the collection of reservoirs i watch last year
was around 6-7 million acre feet of water about this
time. this year it is close to 12maf. the reservoirs
that were close to sucking air that were real concerns
were Folsom and McClure, both are doing ok this year.

i hope they get plenty of snow this winter on the
mountains.


songbird


It rained for three days last week here in
Northern Nevada, so CA should have got
a bunch. The mountains (Sierras) now have
snow on them. And it is 75F outside today.

Most of our nearby reservoirs, three, are all full, it rained upstream
several times recently. Unfortunately we are only getting sprinkles
occasionally so we have to water the vegetable gardens and the fruit
trees with a hose frequently.

The Houston, TX area is nearly always getting regular rain, this year
has been an anomaly. Two previous years we got at least two or three
eighteen inch rains and several folks dumb enough to drive off into an
underpass died.

We get three whole inches a year. A 1/2 inch of rain causes
street flooding and flash floods. Go figure
You either live in a cement city or someplace with lots of rocks.

The high desert

We sit
on several hundred feet of ancient sea bed topped with many centuries of
composted plants. Then we buy a house that the builder put five feet of
Houston gumbo clay on top of that fine soil and topped the clay with two
inches of sand. Just so the homeowner's don't have to buy gubmint
insurance for flooding.

In Louisiana we lived on top of a forty foot ancient sand dune with eons
of humus from dying plants and didn't have to buy the gubmint insurance.
Should have stayed there, but our kids, grands, and great grands all
live within less than an hour from us now.

Most people don't even think about what their property sits on top of
then they wonder one of two things, #1-how did I get all this wonderful
soil? #2-what the heck is this stuff under our feet? Then there's people
who live in tall buildings in big cities and think a window box is
wonderful. VBSEG

T wrote:
songbird wrote:
the collection of reservoirs i watch last year
was around 6-7 million acre feet of water about this
time. this year it is close to 12maf. the reservoirs
that were close to sucking air that were real concerns
were Folsom and McClure, both are doing ok this year.

i hope they get plenty of snow this winter on the
mountains.

It rained for three days last week here in
Northern Nevada, so CA should have got
a bunch. The mountains (Sierras) now have
snow on them. And it is 75F outside today.

they got some for sure as i saw for the first
time in a long time positive inflows to some
of the reservoirs.

i hope you are setting up contours to capture
and hold as much rainfall as you can, putting in
rainbarrels, or even if it is filling buckets
from the downspouts off the roof it is better
than nothing.

the major principles in arid gardening are
wind-breaks, midday shading if you have to,
mulching and capturing water as high up as
possible on the property, stop, slow and spread
to get it all to soak in. if your house has
a basement make sure you are not capturing it
in such a way as to increase your foundation
drains/sump pump costs. yet if you are pumping
water that way it certainly makes a lot of
sense to pay a little more and pump it up as
high as you can into a large tank.

if you can get a tank to store water in up
high enough that can also be a nice source of
water for garden irrigation or possibly even
micro-hydropower. nowadays with LED lighting
you can light up a house for not many watts
(for us here most nights if Ma is not sewing
we can light the whole place enough with 10-15
watts).


songbird

On 10/22/2016 2:09 PM, songbird wrote:
T wrote:
songbird wrote:
the collection of reservoirs i watch last year
was around 6-7 million acre feet of water about this
time. this year it is close to 12maf. the reservoirs
that were close to sucking air that were real concerns
were Folsom and McClure, both are doing ok this year.

i hope they get plenty of snow this winter on the
mountains.

It rained for three days last week here in
Northern Nevada, so CA should have got
a bunch. The mountains (Sierras) now have
snow on them. And it is 75F outside today.

they got some for sure as i saw for the first
time in a long time positive inflows to some
of the reservoirs.

i hope you are setting up contours to capture
and hold as much rainfall as you can, putting in
rainbarrels, or even if it is filling buckets
from the downspouts off the roof it is better
than nothing.

the major principles in arid gardening are
wind-breaks, midday shading if you have to,
mulching and capturing water as high up as
possible on the property, stop, slow and spread
to get it all to soak in. if your house has
a basement make sure you are not capturing it
in such a way as to increase your foundation
drains/sump pump costs. yet if you are pumping
water that way it certainly makes a lot of
sense to pay a little more and pump it up as
high as you can into a large tank.

if you can get a tank to store water in up
high enough that can also be a nice source of
water for garden irrigation or possibly even
micro-hydropower. nowadays with LED lighting
you can light up a house for not many watts
(for us here most nights if Ma is not sewing
we can light the whole place enough with 10-15
watts).


songbird

We replaced a large fluorescent fixture in the kitchen last year with a
LED fixture of less wattage, same lighting. Slowly replacing all
fluorescent and incandescent bulbs as they fail with LED's. Seems to be
working and, eventually everything will be LED at a lower power rate.
Seems that LED lights are slowly dropping in cost as more folks use them.

As to rain, here we either are drowning or in a drought, being a Native
to this area of America I grew up in a beautiful, heavily wooded part of
the US, lots of bayou's, creeks, etc., all running water year around.
Now, many years later we are either in a drought or being drowned.
Weather has changed dramatically here and other parts of this state and
world. Historically this happens frequently if you study history and see
what has been going on for eons.

We woke up to 57F this morning, only in the lower seventies now, perhaps
winter might be creeping up on us. I'm still wearing shorts and a tee
shirt but, by tomorrow, may be in long pants again. I'm just glad that
for the last decade I HAVE NOT WORN A SUIT EVEN ONCE. BSEG

Oh yeah, what passes for a fall garden this year has been planted; one
or two winter plants can pass as a garden, right!

George

George Shirley wrote:
....
We replaced a large fluorescent fixture in the kitchen last year with a
LED fixture of less wattage, same lighting. Slowly replacing all
fluorescent and incandescent bulbs as they fail with LED's. Seems to be
working and, eventually everything will be LED at a lower power rate.
Seems that LED lights are slowly dropping in cost as more folks use them.

the most heavily used bigger lights have
all been replaced. i figure that they pay for
themselves at the rate of one a year (about
$35 each).

the smaller ones i will need a miracle to
replace them all as we have ceiling track
lights and they are so rarely used i've never
had to replace a lightbulb in any of them in
20yrs (and counting ).


As to rain, here we either are drowning or in a drought, being a Native
to this area of America I grew up in a beautiful, heavily wooded part of
the US, lots of bayou's, creeks, etc., all running water year around.
Now, many years later we are either in a drought or being drowned.
Weather has changed dramatically here and other parts of this state and
world. Historically this happens frequently if you study history and see
what has been going on for eons.

you do know that much of what is going on
has a lot to do with what happens when you
strip off rain absorbing cover and replace
it with concrete, subsoil, or altered lands
(improved drainage via ditches and drainage
tubes) right?

in many areas, even the arid near deserts
as soon as you exclude animals from over-
grazing and leave it alone it will recover
to the point that ground water will begin
feeding springs again. this has been doc-
umented repeatedly.


We woke up to 57F this morning, only in the lower seventies now, perhaps
winter might be creeping up on us. I'm still wearing shorts and a tee
shirt but, by tomorrow, may be in long pants again. I'm just glad that
for the last decade I HAVE NOT WORN A SUIT EVEN ONCE. BSEG

it was pretty cool here this morning. 40F.
i had to wear some dress clothes yesterday.
family member got married (yay for them,
they'd been looking for a long time).


Oh yeah, what passes for a fall garden this year has been planted; one
or two winter plants can pass as a garden, right!

i just have a bit of garlic to put in, i
hope i can get to it tomorrow. friends
called the other day and said they had
leaves for me, hopefully some ashes too.
i can use all they want to bring in the
garden i'm working on at the moment. it
was where we had the tomatoes and i could
elevate it a foot and a half and get some
wood chips in there too along with some
ashes and leaves and it will be reconditioned
for a few year's growing.


songbird

On 10/20/2016 10:13 AM, songbird wrote:
the collection of reservoirs i watch last year
was around 6-7 million acre feet of water about this
time. this year it is close to 12maf. the reservoirs
that were close to sucking air that were real concerns
were Folsom and McClure, both are doing ok this year.

i hope they get plenty of snow this winter on the
mountains.


songbird


Neat url about water:

http://everylastdrop.co.uk/

On 10/22/2016 12:09 PM, songbird wrote:
T wrote:
songbird wrote:
the collection of reservoirs i watch last year
was around 6-7 million acre feet of water about this
time. this year it is close to 12maf. the reservoirs
that were close to sucking air that were real concerns
were Folsom and McClure, both are doing ok this year.

i hope they get plenty of snow this winter on the
mountains.

It rained for three days last week here in
Northern Nevada, so CA should have got
a bunch. The mountains (Sierras) now have
snow on them. And it is 75F outside today.

they got some for sure as i saw for the first
time in a long time positive inflows to some
of the reservoirs.

i hope you are setting up contours to capture
and hold as much rainfall as you can, putting in
rainbarrels, or even if it is filling buckets
from the downspouts off the roof it is better
than nothing.

the major principles in arid gardening are
wind-breaks, midday shading if you have to,
mulching and capturing water as high up as
possible on the property, stop, slow and spread
to get it all to soak in. if your house has
a basement make sure you are not capturing it
in such a way as to increase your foundation
drains/sump pump costs. yet if you are pumping
water that way it certainly makes a lot of
sense to pay a little more and pump it up as
high as you can into a large tank.

if you can get a tank to store water in up
high enough that can also be a nice source of
water for garden irrigation or possibly even
micro-hydropower. nowadays with LED lighting
you can light up a house for not many watts
(for us here most nights if Ma is not sewing
we can light the whole place enough with 10-15
watts).


songbird


Hi Songbird,

That stuff is a future thing. I have very little spare
time.

There is not enough rain to justify a rain barrel.

No one out here has basements.

I try to make my holes and beds slightly lower than
the surrounding surface so that water will drain into
them. And it did. The big bed I am making for
my onions took three days to drain after our whole
1/2 inch of rain stopped. (Pretty hard ground for
it not to soak in. It only went about two inches down
when I got to shoveling again.)

And the peat moss is to hole water.

With the drought, we have been seeing around 3 inches
per year for about the last five years or so.

-T

On 10/22/2016 4:55 PM, songbird wrote:
George Shirley wrote:
...
We replaced a large fluorescent fixture in the kitchen last year with a
LED fixture of less wattage, same lighting. Slowly replacing all
fluorescent and incandescent bulbs as they fail with LED's. Seems to be
working and, eventually everything will be LED at a lower power rate.
Seems that LED lights are slowly dropping in cost as more folks use them.

the most heavily used bigger lights have
all been replaced. i figure that they pay for
themselves at the rate of one a year (about
$35 each).

the smaller ones i will need a miracle to
replace them all as we have ceiling track
lights and they are so rarely used i've never
had to replace a lightbulb in any of them in
20yrs (and counting ).


As to rain, here we either are drowning or in a drought, being a Native
to this area of America I grew up in a beautiful, heavily wooded part of
the US, lots of bayou's, creeks, etc., all running water year around.
Now, many years later we are either in a drought or being drowned.
Weather has changed dramatically here and other parts of this state and
world. Historically this happens frequently if you study history and see
what has been going on for eons.

you do know that much of what is going on
has a lot to do with what happens when you
strip off rain absorbing cover and replace
it with concrete, subsoil, or altered lands
(improved drainage via ditches and drainage
tubes) right?

in many areas, even the arid near deserts
as soon as you exclude animals from over-
grazing and leave it alone it will recover
to the point that ground water will begin
feeding springs again. this has been doc-
umented repeatedly.
Yup, I've lived in several US states and at least four foreign countries
in my lifetime. Have seen lush jungles destroyed, and people planting
things in deserts to hold the sand in place. To many people building to
many cities. When we lived in Houston area in the mid-seventies you
could drive around where we live now and it was all farms and ranches,
now it's thousands of houses and more concrete and asphalt roads. Big
difference.


We woke up to 57F this morning, only in the lower seventies now, perhaps
winter might be creeping up on us. I'm still wearing shorts and a tee
shirt but, by tomorrow, may be in long pants again. I'm just glad that
for the last decade I HAVE NOT WORN A SUIT EVEN ONCE. BSEG

it was pretty cool here this morning. 40F.
i had to wear some dress clothes yesterday.
family member got married (yay for them,
they'd been looking for a long time).


Oh yeah, what passes for a fall garden this year has been planted; one
or two winter plants can pass as a garden, right!

i just have a bit of garlic to put in, i
hope i can get to it tomorrow. friends
called the other day and said they had
leaves for me, hopefully some ashes too.
i can use all they want to bring in the
garden i'm working on at the moment. it
was where we had the tomatoes and i could
elevate it a foot and a half and get some
wood chips in there too along with some
ashes and leaves and it will be reconditioned
for a few year's growing.


songbird

I'm showered, shaved, and headed for bed soon, has been a long day, just
waiting for wife to get back from the church bazaar to make sure she's
safe. I go to bed early and get up early, she does the opposite, good
thing we sleep in different beds.

Frank wrote:
songbird wrote:

the collection of reservoirs i watch last year
was around 6-7 million acre feet of water about this
time. this year it is close to 12maf. the reservoirs
that were close to sucking air that were real concerns
were Folsom and McClure, both are doing ok this year.

i hope they get plenty of snow this winter on the
mountains.

Neat url about water:

http://everylastdrop.co.uk/

cute!

for us leaking pipes mean the water
just goes back into the ground, i am
not sure how long it takes for the
surface water to get down to where the
well sucks it up. not too many leaks.
pretty small system.

as we have running ditches from two
directions that run through here i am
not worried about running out of water.
even this summer with very little rain
the larger one keeps running as it
drains a pretty big area (a few hundred
acres).

in another era i'd set up a smaller
and shallow well to use for garden
irrigation and to get a small pond
topped off, but i'm not quite that
ambitious at the moment. eventually
i do hope to do something like that
to encourage more froggies and toadies
and maybe even get some crayfish
growing.


songbird

T wrote:
....
I try to make my holes and beds slightly lower than
the surrounding surface so that water will drain into
them. And it did. The big bed I am making for
my onions took three days to drain after our whole
1/2 inch of rain stopped. (Pretty hard ground for
it not to soak in. It only went about two inches down
when I got to shoveling again.)

you don't want standing water on plants
for that long, so i hope that is not your
final contouring for that bed?

if you can put contours a few feet to
the sides to hold and soak that water
that would be much better.


And the peat moss is to hole water.

yeah.


With the drought, we have been seeing around 3 inches
per year for about the last five years or so.

we used to get more gentle and soaking rains
in the spring, but now things have become more
heavy downpours through most of the season. i try
to do all contours to hold 1-2 inches of rain
from a downpour and the rest can run into the
next layer. some of it may make it off the lot
but not much.

my other issue is potential flash flooding so
i do have drains and pathways set up to handle
that and the berm which has yet to be tested since
i put it in a few years ago.


songbird

On 10/23/2016 07:01 AM, songbird wrote:
T wrote:
...
I try to make my holes and beds slightly lower than
the surrounding surface so that water will drain into
them. And it did. The big bed I am making for
my onions took three days to drain after our whole
1/2 inch of rain stopped. (Pretty hard ground for
it not to soak in. It only went about two inches down
when I got to shoveling again.)

you don't want standing water on plants
for that long, so i hope that is not your
final contouring for that bed?

if you can put contours a few feet to
the sides to hold and soak that water
that would be much better.

The pool will be below the plants, so it should
not matter. Plus when it is not a big trench,
it won't collect so much water. It is all filled
up now. I wonder if the worms have discovered
all the melon peals I saved them.

And the peat moss is to hole water.

yeah.


With the drought, we have been seeing around 3 inches
per year for about the last five years or so.

we used to get more gentle and soaking rains
in the spring, but now things have become more
heavy downpours through most of the season. i try
to do all contours to hold 1-2 inches of rain
from a downpour and the rest can run into the
next layer. some of it may make it off the lot
but not much.


The only heavy down pours are thunderstorms in the summer.
We haven't had much to speak of for about three years now.
The nitrogen water gives my plants a growth spurt. Help
the plants recover from the holes the hail puts in them.

In the winter, the wind can be a thing to behold. We
had two hurricane force 1 winds come though a month apart
two years ago. So far, so good this years. The wind hits
about 45 MPH at its worst.

my other issue is potential flash flooding so
i do have drains and pathways set up to handle
that and the berm which has yet to be tested since
i put it in a few years ago.


songbird