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Paul Weller - "As Is Now" (2005 - don't know what label, 'cause I bought it at Emusic)...former leader of The Jam, s My Photographs You like photos? I love taking them. Click here, if you wanna see some of my work
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Thursday, Apr. 06, 2006 - 9:03 p.m. Coming in the March, we had been in one of the worst droughts here in North Dakota in the past 100 years. My gardens didn�t suffer too much last year, due to the timely application of municipal water. The local farmers didn�t suffer as much as you think they would, mainly because what little rain we received fell at almost the perfect time for their soybeans and corn crops. A few days either way, and the pollination and seed development wouldn�t have been nearly as good as it was. Why am I boring you with this news? Simple. Every morning, my clock-radio alarm wakes me up with the statewide farm report. There, two farmer-types spend 30 minutes telling the farmers of North Dakota how bad conditions are (no matter WHAT the conditions are). For about the last 150 days, all they have talked about is THE DROUGHT! The worst one EVER, in the opinions of the meteorologist they consult. Unless it rained HEAVY , NOW!, farmers could expect NO HARVEST this year! NONE! This morning, I woke up at 4 am to take the boys outside for their early morning pee. When I opened the back door, I was greeted with a torrential downpour. I couldn�t even get Jay-dog to go out the door. When the alarm woke me up at 5:45, the farm report was on. Guess what? Still a drought. Might only be severe in the north-western portion of the state, but all farmers should be aware of how bad it could be in June and July. So said the farm report guys. After I turned the alarm off, Lease came into the bedroom and turned the local news station on the TV. The weatherguy there was at the end of his report. He mentioned that coming into today, we were at 8.5� of rain for the year. The normal for this point of the year was 7�. So�. Even before the rains fell (and boy, did they ever!) today, we were at about 125% of normal for the year. Hardly a drought. Today? This 5-gallon bucket was empty when I left for work today. Empty, except for the 4� plastic pot and garden trowel I left in it from planting cabbage yesterday:
This is the cheap-o plastic rain gauge I keep in the backyard here at Casa Roadiepig. Yes, the line is at 2.8� for the past 16 hours, about the normal amount for the entire month of April here in North Dakota:
These next two shots were taken by our boss at work. He has a Sony Mavica digital camera. It uses floppy discs to save images. What does that mean? Quality isn�t great, in other words. I always edit his photos before he sends them to London (our headquarters here in North Dakota). Clean up the color and sharpness, resize them for email. One of my daily tasks, in other words. So these two photos aren�t from my viewpoint. They do show how high the water got by midday around the county, though:
That last one shows the overflow area for a small farm pond on our interstate. In 23 years of employment by the NDDOT, I have NEVER seen water come over this barricade/retaining wall. What does this all mean for the local farmers? Tomorrow morning, the guys on the farm report will be talking about how all this rain has saturated the fields, and now farmers probably won�t be able to get out and plant their crops on time this spring. Which means they now have something new to worry about. Such is the life of a farmer. I have garden hoses at both of my gardens, so I�m not too worried about it, either way�.
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