Just watered the garden today

[Zeedman]

Which doesn't sound noteworthy... but then, this is the first time I've had to water the vegetable garden since 2015!!! And only my home plots (which are better drained) needed it, the rural plot is still damp. The rains have been so frequent that in 2016 the garden never dried out, and the grass needed to be mowed all summer. Same this year, until now. The garden success that I took for granted for so many years has been replaced by constant frustration, due to the unending rains (and sometimes flooding) in 4 of the last 5 years. I've surrendered the lower 1/3 of my rural plot to the weeds this year, and will abandon that portion after this year... no sense fencing in a mud pit.

Only a brief respite in the rainfall, but at least DW & I were able to get a lot of weeding done, and lay a lot of mulch. More rain expected in 3 of the next 4 days, we just seem to be in the bulls-eye for every storm this year. I may need to find a better-drained site for my main garden, and give up my rural plot entirely. That would really be a shame, the folks who have let us use their land for the last 12 years are such kind & generous people, it would feel like leaving family.

 

[digitS']

Extremes. Perhaps as soon as you pull up stakes, the pendulum will swing back.

Drought is what the West has struggled with in recent years. Just far enough away from the black areas on the map, record October rain and a snowy 2016-7 winter looked like it carried the interior NW home free. Then, the entire PNW has a dry summer. What is especially noteworthy is the lack of rain in normally the wettest parts, near the coast.

Would 6 months of snow and rain make up for our months of zero precip? From my layman's perspective, I'd say "maybe." This region borders on a Mediterranean climate and thorough saturation of the soil by spring might save the evergreens.

I had thought that it would be sufficient for the wheat but the reports are of a limited harvest. I've wondered about what happened to the other grain crops, more common in earlier times. Thousands of square miles are turned over for single crops in today's agriculture - an area wide industrial model.

Would devoting more time to fishing make sense, Zeedman?

Steve

 

[baymule]

You might ought to keep it. Next year could be a drought. Ya never know.

 

[Nyboy]

I once dug a hole in my clay soil for a tree. It started raining hard tree never planted, hole filled with water. 3 days later hole still fill with water