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.

 

[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.