Got Water?

[Kitaman]

Anyone rationing?

Went fishing from shore and was able to walk out much further than usual at a couple of lakes. Also was in Mass and some communities have started water restrictions. Lot of rivers, streams and brooks are dry. Some CT golf courses are on water restriction, and can only draw so much water for the course from local sources. Some took away the water stations and its freakin August!

Is this what San Diego feels like?

Making light of this but I think this is going to get serious for some folks, especially out west. I'm also wondering if I need to be doing something in preparation for the worse.

 

[Deepster]

We have a massive Tulip Tree and its leaves started turning yellow a few weeks ago, then brown, then falling. I was freaked out when I noticed it because I feared it was dying. It's only around 30' from our house so it would have to be taken down, which would cost a ton of money. Dr. Google says that it's not dead, but that this happens in summer when there is not enough water.

Thankfully, the moss that populates our lawn has remained green throughout.

This happens to the trees in Aruba. They lose their leaves and look dead because of the long dry stretches. When it rains, they’ll bloom right back in a couple days.

 

[Chin Diesel]

If you're watering your lawn right now you're a jerk. Can't stand the people who value a green lawn over water preservation.

I see a lot of this in my area. Even lawns with irrigation still going are turning. Let it go already. I hate mowing the lawn this time of year anyway.

Makes me appreciate living in an area where a 25' well and a pump gives you all the water you want without tapping in to municipal water supplies. It still blows my mind that people in this country use potable water for their lawns.

 

[RichCTBB]

Makes me appreciate living in an area where a 25' well and a pump gives you all the water you want without tapping in to municipal water supplies. It still blows my mind that people in this country use potable water for their lawns.

We are all wells in our neighborhood. I don’t know the likelihood of any of them going dry, but I’d rather be safe and considerate than sorry. I wish our outdoor hose faucets were pre-filter. Always seemed like a waste of filters when watering anything.

 

[UCSouth]

All of the rain that most of you aren't getting...it's down here in S. Alabama. Seems like it rains 4-5 days a week. The pond is over full pool, darn grass keeps growing and the garden is going well. It's pouring as I write this. Sorry guys, but I thought you might want to know where it is.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

All of the rain that most of you aren't getting...it's down here in S. Alabama. Seems like it rains 4-5 days a week. The pond is over full pool, darn grass keeps growing and the garden is going well. It's pouring as I write this. Sorry guys, but I thought you might want to know where it is.

There was a real bad drought in the Southern States I believe in 1990’s . It’s one thing to hear about on TV. But I remember going there in late Aug early Sept and driving by cornfields that should have had stalks 8-10 ft tall and green and seeing 2 ft tall yellow /brown stumps for miles , That visual really gets your attention as it was beyond my imagination. I remember thinking that’s somebody’s living destroyed.

 

[Hey Adrien!]

Let’s go!!!

 

[temery]

A couple years ago I looked into having a well drilled. I was paying around $1,200/yr for town water, and that's only going to go up.

The problem was the price for a well is open ended. They charge by the foot, and don't stop until they hit bedrock. My property borders wetlands on two sides, but my property is sand. Neighbors with wells had to drill 300+ ft.

I decided to just stop watering my very large lawn.

 

[Vancat]

Lakefront. Usually have about 2 inches of sand beach. Now we have about 2.5 feet.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

We have been using the water from the humidifier in the basement to water the potted plants and flowers.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Makes me appreciate living in an area where a 25' well and a pump gives you all the water you want without tapping in to municipal water supplies. It still blows my mind that people in this country use potable water for their lawns.

Most of us don't have any access to non-potable water (except from the dehumidifier perhaps..I dump mine on the lawn or shrubs).

Hoping for more rain than we seem to be getting today. Seems like every single expected storm or rain event misses us or peters out.

 

[Hey Adrien!]

Hoping for more rain than we seem to be getting today. Seems like every single expected storm or rain event misses us or peters out.

That's what's happening in Norwalk now. The forecast I shared last night has now turned to:

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

On the bright side, the MDC has a supply of over 600 days of water (i.e. if it didn't get any additional water into its reservoirs).

 

[Chin Diesel]

Most of us don't have any access to non-potable water (except from the dehumidifier perhaps..I dump mine on the lawn or shrubs).

Hoping for more rain than we seem to be getting today. Seems like every single expected storm or rain event misses us or peters out.

Growing up in CT I think one person in our neighborhood watered their yard. They were also the only yard I remember having a spray/fertilizer/insecticide service.

I just don't remember watering lawns being a thing. I know I used to cut grass as a tween and young teen for a few bucks.
As an adult I couldn't imagine paying more for my water bill just to water grass.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Growing up in CT I think one person in our neighborhood watered their yard. They were also the only yard I remember having a spray/fertilizer/insecticide service.

I just don't remember watering lawns being a thing. I know I used to cut grass as a tween and young teen for a few bucks.
As an adult I couldn't imagine paying more for my water bill just to water grass.

Even without the drought, most towns have a soft water ban, limiting watering with city water. I have a well. Some in my neighborhood overdo it. But one of my neighbors ran a well dry, so I am wary. No water bill, but I do front side/back side every other day. Shut down this summer as there's no point.

 

[ClifSpliffy]

A couple years ago I looked into having a well drilled. I was paying around $1,200/yr for town water, and that's only going to go up.

The problem was the price for a well is open ended. They charge by the foot, and don't stop until they hit bedrock. My property borders wetlands on two sides, but my property is sand. Neighbors with wells had to drill 300+ ft.

I decided to just stop watering my very large lawn.

we have a tremendous amount of freshwater under our feet here in New England. get a well. pops remembers when water was free in Bridgeport. now, they measure and charge you for what goes in, and based on that amount, they then charge you for what goes out.
get a well. nowadays, lots of places out west tell you what you can have, and what you can't. change has come!

 

[Hey Adrien!]

Growing up in CT I think one person in our neighborhood watered their yard. They were also the only yard I remember having a spray/fertilizer/insecticide service.

I just don't remember watering lawns being a thing. I know I used to cut grass as a tween and young teen for a few bucks.
As an adult I couldn't imagine paying more for my water bill just to water grass.

That's one of the bigger disappointments for my wife living at our home. She grew up in Eastern Montana (semi-arid) on a 1/2 acre property with a dad who was obsessed with his lawn: it was the nicest lawn in town but watered all the time, covered in chemicals, etc.

Now, we live in a woodsy part of Norwalk and our lawn "looks awful" to her.

To me, if it's green and it's trimmed, it's acceptable lawn, which carries the tradition of when I started mowing the lawn at my mom's house when I was 11.

I can't worry about our lawn being pure grass, but I try by best each season to regrade and grow the worst parts of our lawn, mostly on the north facing portion of our lawn that contains are leach fields from our septic. It's a 1/3 acre that also includes a publicly owned berm that we maintain (mow the lawn, trim the bushes, planted pachysandras, etc). It's a slow, but steady improvement, knowing its ultimate Sisyphean fate.

 

[ClifSpliffy]

Growing up in CT I think one person in our neighborhood watered their yard. They were also the only yard I remember having a spray/fertilizer/insecticide service.

I just don't remember watering lawns being a thing. I know I used to cut grass as a tween and young teen for a few bucks.
As an adult I couldn't imagine paying more for my water bill just to water grass.

growing up in Bridgeport, im pretty sure that folks bought 'sprinklers' not for grass, but to keep the dang kids busy, and out of their hair in the summer. the bad part was when those rents looked out at the postage stamp yards and saw like 20 kids dancing around, knowing that they'll all want something sugary to drink.
prolly overheard back then, 'u live around here? i never saw u before...'
back then, i also learned that a 'slip and slide' on a sloped ashphalt driveway is a wholly different thing than an s and s on a lawn. 'dive! dive!' umm. no. only took one time for us fast learners. who had lawns? lucky suburban kids....

 

[ClifSpliffy]

one time, around 3rd or 4th grade, some free ranging scouts in our bike posse figgered out that over at Brooklawn Country Club, the sprinklers came on at a certain time. at first, only a few of us pioneers dared to jump in. low key, 'don't tell no one, loose lips sink ships.' a few times later, word gets out, and then after a few more times with like ten kids, we see a small army of carts heading for us. 'out! and don't come back or we'll call the cops!' who would call the cops on a bunch of kids just cooling off in the sprinklers? apparently, cranky fairdale people do. i mean, we prolly offered to sign waivers from lawsuit iffn anyone got hit by a golfball. didn't impress them. we decided to cool it since some of our crew swore that they saw gunracks in the back of those golf carts. prolly shotguns, the kind made for geese and Bridgeport kids. good times.

 

[RichZ]

A landscaping trend that seems to have caught on in these parts the last 5 years or so is a line of small evergreens planted on a berm that runs across the front of the property. Obviously they die quickly without some type of water supply built into the berm. I remember one a homeowner on Rte 111 in Monroe did one himself and didn't know enough to put in hydration plumbing. The trees died within a month. He replaced them and they died again. THEN he dug up his yard to get water out to the berm.
Anyway, back to the point at hand. Even with underground plumbing to the berm, a lot of those evergreens on a lot of those installations appear to be suffering this summer.

 

[CL82]

The storm we have down here has been perfect. Slow steady rain that can rehydrate the soil, rather than a big downpour that would just run along the surface of it.

 

[Vancat]

Oooooh it's raining!

 

[Chin Diesel]

Northern Gulf Coast and I'm probably getting 10-15 inches of rain this week and we had no droughts. Central TX, LA, MS and AL getting closer to 20" this week.

A low is just sitting in the Gulf of Mexico and there is nothing coming from any direction to push it away. Only saving grace is that means no tropical developments and mid-August to mid-September is the peak season for tropical development. You take the 8-10 days straight of rain.

 

[ClifSpliffy]

A couple years ago I looked into having a well drilled. I was paying around $1,200/yr for town water, and that's only going to go up.

The problem was the price for a well is open ended. They charge by the foot, and don't stop until they hit bedrock. My property borders wetlands on two sides, but my property is sand. Neighbors with wells had to drill 300+ ft.

I decided to just stop watering my very large lawn.

im tellin ya bud, get a well. lots of 'out there' things of just a few years back have accelerated their arrival, and now some are 'right here.'
owning your water is an extremely miniscule reality for most on earth.

and we live in one of the few places where there is plenty of it, and we're 'allowed' to do just that.